Smiling Faces - The Undisputed Truth

Saturday, October 11, 2014

On Wednesday, October 8, 2014, I had to report for jury duty here in
Brevard County, Florida. I think anyone that's read this blog or
knows me at all knows there's not a chance the state would put me on
a jury, at least not for a criminal case. I do have certain personal
obligations that would have allowed for an excusal for cause, but
decided that I would at least attempt to meet my civic
responsibilities.

It was an interesting day. I awoke at 4:30am and started the day by
drinking two double espressos at home. I arrived at the Moore Justice
Center in Viera around 7:30am and had my first cup of coffee almost
immediately and followed-up with four or five more cups and a coke
before making it to a courtroom around 1:30pm. Just so you
understand, I slept less than 3 hours before doing all of that.

Could I have
passed a Field Sobriety Test?

Judge Cathleen B. Clark controlled her courtroom well and she was
nice - something I never thought I'd say about a judge. While I abhor
the system she chose to work in, I admit that we need more like her
instead of what we usually get. Judge Clark was liberal with both the
state and the defense during voir dire, allowing more time for
questioning of the jury pool than my own judge in my racketeering and
conspiracy trial. Seriously. Perhaps equally as long as Paul Bergrin
had to question the jury pool in his massive federal case.

By this point, you may realize that this was a DUI trial. As a
longtime LEAP and NORML supporter, I really do not know what a Field
Sobriety Test (FST) is, but I didn't want to sound completely
clueless and ask. Well, I just Googled it and it's exactly what I
thought it was, so that's a good thing. It's the test that cops give
at a traffic stop if they think you are intoxicated - stand on one
leg, walk and turn, check your eyes etc.... At one point the jury
pool was asked if we could think of any valid reason not to submit to
a FST as a driver. Most potential jurors came-up with at least one
reason. I offered several in the course of the conversation. At the
time, I thought a breathalyzer was a FST also, and perhaps it is, but
can't find any info on it now.

I stated that I wasn't entirely sure that I could pass a FST at that
moment. So much coffee / caffeine and so little sleep had me blurting
out numerous thoughts as we progressed through the voir dire. If you
know me at all, you know I'm weird enough to say what I really think
just about anywhere. Of course I tried to guard my inclination to be
too brutally honest at the wrong time as I believed the defendant
might need someone like me on the jury, someone that knows what the
state is really all about, someone that knows what time it is.

As it turned out, most of my fellow citizen jurors knew what time it
was too. That's a good thing and I can only hope that the defendant
was acquitted. He looked to be my son's age and I doubt that he would
have taken it to trial if there wasn't too much at stake. I do not
recall his last name or I'd look-up the case in the clerk's office
online.

It was easy to figure out some of the issues with the case by the
questions the prosecutor and the defense asked. I'll start by stating
that the case should never have been filed to begin with. This seems
to be par for the course in Brevard County, Florida. Cops here will
arrest a ham sandwich and force the victim defendant to prove
innocence or prove a negative, at least this holds true if you're not
one of their informants. On the other hand, their informants get away
with murder - literally.

Issues of the
Case

Now this is my perception of the situation derived from the
questioning of the jury pool and is not absolute. At the end of voir
dire, I was excused (go figure), so I am not aware of all the facts:

The defendant refused Field Sobriety Tests.

The Palm Bay PD cops neglected to make a video recording.

The only witnesses were Palm Bay PD officers.

The defendant refused whatever plea deal the state offered.

The defendant did not intend to testify in his defense.

The state really had no case.

Much of the questioning in voir dire focused on potential juror trust
of law enforcement and discussions were geared to reveal encounters
and past experiences with cops. Good grief. For a moment, imagine me
attempting to respond to some of these questions without mentioning
my previous case and without lying. Not an easy tightrope to walk,
especially when you have had as much caffeine as I did that day.

At one point there was no way around a response that I did not trust
cops and would never give permission for anything for any reason,
such as a FST or a vehicle search. But I was not alone in those
thoughts, which was a learning experience for me. I didn't realize
how many of my fellow citizens have suffered at the hands of an
overzealous cop hellbent on locking them in cage or simply harassing
them. It did take some time for most to open-up about their
experiences and thoughts though and perhaps that's why the judge
allowed so much time for voir dire.

So what did I
learn?

Mainly I learned that the state will take anyone to trial regardless
of the quality of the evidence. In my case they went for quantity
versus quality. In this case it was just slim pickings. The state
expected the jury to simply believe what the Palm Bay PD officers
stated, with no corroborating evidence whatsoever. Now that's scary.

With such a flimsy excuse for evidence there's no way in hell I could
have come-up with a guilty verdict. At the time, I was reminded of a
joke:

How can you tell when a cop is lying? He opens his mouth and
speaks.

When a cop is testifying they don't call it testilying for no reason.
Cops falsify arrest reports and statements and commit perjury on the
stand with impunity - that's a fact!

I always thought that DUI cases were based on scientific evidence,
not the word of cops making their quota for the night. I stated
something to this effect when the prosecutor was asking questions
that reflected no evidence in the case. The prosecutor sort of
brushed it under the rug. She was nice - certainly far more
personable and nice than my persecutor, John Craft, formerly with the
Statewide Prosecutor's Office and now an Assistant U.S. Attorney. She
was not intrusive, but it was obvious that the state was shopping for
a jury of cop-lovers.

If you believe cops just because they're cops, you would convict this
defendant, but if you were me, well, he would have been acquitted or
it would be a hung jury - take your pick. I don't care how long we
all had to return to the courthouse, I'd never, ever convict on the
word of a cop. I'm not that stupid. I learned what time it was long
ago.

During voir dire there was a second prosecutor that spent most of his
time on a laptop and pointing to stuff for the lady prosecutor as she
questioned us. I must imagine that he was searching Google and
Facebook for jury pool names, including my own. If he looked at my FB
timeline, he probably saw this:

I also learned that the very great majority of jurors / citizens
expect to hear from the defendant. Of course I already knew that from
my own case. If the defendant doesn't fill-in the blanks for the
jury, the prosecutor will. And yes, I testified in my defense in my
case and was drilled and screamed at for most of an entire day by a
very experienced (and overzealous) prosecutor. We had arguments and
screaming matches while I was on the stand - literally.

So hopefully I got over my PTSD concerning the court people and
courthouses by confronting the issues head-on with this jury duty. I
even laughed with a cop today, which is a first in a long time (at
least 12 years) for me. As reluctant as I was to go, I am happy that
I did. I learned more than I'll say, but I'm one of those people
that's always testing, searching for vulnerabilities, and I found
what I was seeking.

I also met some nice people and had lunch with a couple of wonderful
women. A big shout-out to Carolyn - it was great discussing Paris and
the rest of Europe with you. Good times, no doubt. And a big hello to
Noella, retired corrections officer... I've never encountered a
corrections officer that was not nice to me - well, one of many when
I was arrested - but I understand it's a job and a lifestyle. It was
great to meet you both!

For the record, I wouldn't Call the Cops if my neighbor was a serial killer!